# The by-hand steps Your AI does the building. There are only a few things it cannot do for you, because they happen inside your own accounts and on your own computer. That is all this guide covers. --- ## Before you start You need an AI you can paste into, which means ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. The free versions are fine. You also need the Slide Builder file you downloaded. It is a plain text file, and its name ends in `.md`. --- ## Step 1: Open the file and copy everything inside it Try double-clicking it first. If it opens in a plain text window, select everything and copy it, and you are done with this step. If your computer asks what to open it with, or nothing happens at all, that is normal and easy to get past. On Windows, right-click the file, choose Open with, and pick Notepad. On a Mac, right-click it, choose Open With, and pick TextEdit. Then select all of it and copy it. On a Mac that is Command and A, then Command and C. On Windows it is Control and A, then Control and C. ✅ *Screenshot: the opened file with all of its text highlighted.* --- ## Step 2: Paste it into your AI and press send Open a brand new chat, paste the whole thing in, and send it. Starting a new chat matters. An old chat is still carrying everything you talked about before, and that muddles the instructions. The AI will read it and come straight back with six short questions. ✅ *Screenshot: a fresh chat with the pasted text and the AI's first reply.* --- ## Step 3: Answer the six questions in one message Rough answers are genuinely fine. Say it how you would say it out loud, and do not worry about using the right words. If you are unsure about one, say so and it will choose something sensible for you. One of the questions asks whether you want slides you can edit in Google Slides, or a web page deck you present straight from your browser. The question explains the difference, and the short version is that the first one you can change afterwards and the second one you cannot. ✅ *Screenshot: your six answers typed as a single reply.* --- ## Step 4: Take what it gives you Your AI will try to hand you a real file to download. Sometimes it can, and sometimes it cannot, which depends on the AI you are using and not on anything you did. It will tell you plainly which one is happening. Both endings give you a finished deck. ### If you chose editable slides and it hands you a file Download it. Open Google Slides and start a blank presentation. Go to the File menu and choose Import slides. Upload the file you just downloaded. A grid of your slides appears. Click Select all, then click Import slides. Everything lands in a normal Google Slides deck you can edit like any other. ✅ *Screenshot: the Import slides window with the slide grid and Select all showing.* ### If you chose editable slides and it writes them out as text The AI gives you your slides one block at a time, plus a short styling sheet telling you exactly which fonts, sizes and colours to set. Open a blank Google Slides presentation and copy the blocks across one at a time, then follow the styling sheet. It is a bit of clicking, but nothing about it is difficult and the sheet tells you every setting to use. ✅ *Screenshot: a blank Google Slides deck beside the AI's first slide block.* ### If you chose a web page deck and it hands you a file Save it somewhere you will find it again, like your desktop. Double-click it and it opens in your browser as a full deck. The left and right arrow keys move you through it. ✅ *Screenshot: the deck open in a browser.* ### If you chose a web page deck and it gives you code instead You will see a long block of code in the chat with a copy button on it. Copy the whole thing, then save it yourself. It takes about a minute. **On a Mac:** open TextEdit and start a new document. Go to the Format menu and choose Make Plain Text before you paste anything, because TextEdit starts in a mode that saves the wrong kind of file. Paste the code in, then save it as `deck.html`. If it warns you about the ending, choose to keep `.html`. **On Windows:** open Notepad, paste the code in, and choose Save as. Set "Save as type" to All Files, then name it `deck.html`. Double-click the saved file and it opens in your browser. ✅ *Screenshot: TextEdit with Make Plain Text selected before pasting.* --- ## Step 5: Present it For a web page deck, put your browser into full screen first. On a Mac that is Control, Command and F. On Windows it is F11. For Google Slides, use the Slideshow button in the top right. --- ## Step 6: Ask for changes You get one round of tweaks built in, and you can always ask for more. Tell the AI what you want changed in plain words. Something like "slide four is too crowded" or "make the ending stronger" is enough. One thing worth knowing. If you chose the web page deck, changing even one word means asking the AI for a fresh file. The words inside it are fixed once it is built. If you think you will want to fiddle with the wording later, the editable route is the better pick. --- ## If something goes wrong **The AI seems to have forgotten the instructions.** Long chats drift. Start a new chat, paste the file in again, and give it your answers a second time. **It described a file but there is nothing to click.** Say exactly that, and ask it to give you the contents in the chat instead. Both routes have a way through without a download. **Some slides say YOUR EXAMPLE HERE.** That is deliberate. It marks the places where a real example of yours would land better than something invented. Fill those in yourself before you present. **The slides look plain.** Ask it to apply the styling sheet again and tell it which part looks wrong. Plain usually means a step got skipped. --- ## What this touches Nothing is published anywhere, and nothing is sent to any audience or mailing list. Your finished deck lives on your own computer, or in your own Google account if you chose that route. Nobody else can see it unless you share it yourself. Worth being clear about one thing. Whatever you type into your AI is going to that AI company, the same as anything else you have ever put in one of those chats. So use your normal judgement about what you paste in, and leave out anything you would not want sitting on someone else's server. You can stop at any point and nothing is left behind.